About Jonathan Maguire
Jonathan Maguire was born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland in 1965. He has a War Studies BA (Hons) from Birmingham University and served in several Irish Regiments before joining the staff of the Royal Irish Fusiliers museum in Armagh in 1998. Since 2022 Jonathan has also assumed responsibility of military antiquary assisting the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Enniskillen with their research. The job primarily is assisting family researchers and academics. Phaleristics (the study of medals and insignia) is Jonathan's particular area of expertise.
“But when I think of the British Isles, I think of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales in their entirety. Through my work, you’ll see a sort of a terrible amount of confliction, where, you know, in World War Two alone, the British government had 110,000 next of kin addresses for British service personnel for the 26 counties. And of course, a lot of the people who came actually used English accommodation addresses. So we’ll never know. But it was certainly well in excess of 110,000 who, who came and volunteered and fought.”
In Conversation with Jonathan Maguire
Why I bought the Bhisti Hira medal
“The Gurkha bhisti, actually not a Gurkha, simply an Indian employed by the Regiment. The medal is odd in that it is silver, all 'follower' medals were bronze until post 1908. This a Victorian example. Combatants’ medals being silver. Having asked the question the reference books remain silent as does the internet. I contend that as a bhisti's job was so dangerous, searching for water in rivers potentially far from his unit’s location and attacks on these unarmed followers like bhistis and syces [grass cutters for unit animal transport] that in the case of bhistis, silver was deemed appropriate. In the end, armed Gurkhas had to accompany the bhistis, to stop them being butchered by tribesmen.
In one unrelated incident, soldiers found an Afghan child hacking at the throat of a dead soldier almost decapitated, the child was thrown over a cliff. Life on the frontier was brutal.”
* Or bheesty, see H Yule & A Burnell, Hobson Jobson, London 1886.
Captured trophies of war and their retention.
Soldiers and administrators died and were killed in large numbers to extend the pax Britannica. These men left loved ones and families in what they knew to be just causes. To return items to those vanquished dishonours the soldiers and brings shame upon the returnee, be it institution or nation. Soldiers are unlike other citizens. Each day they go to work they subconsciously know they might not return. Their service is akin to a priest or medico, a vocation, a higher calling one might say. They often give all that civilians may stay safe at home or elsewhere. Not to have worn a uniform is unescapable and something less than this.
Why I bought Ajaiye Akure’s medal
The Southern Nigeria Regiment. A rare five clasp example for various campaigns, much information on these has been since lost to history but effectively the expeditions were to stamp out slavery in the localities and in the case of Aro, suppress the Long Juju fetish at the request of the Ibo tribe and others. Cannibalism was rife and in one case a white doctor had ill advisedly went out alone and been partly eaten prior to recovery of the remnants.
"Bheesti" Reference
Royal Humane Society certificate
Jonathan Maguire's writing for the MMMV project
Why I collect -
I was always interested in military side shows. Medals are a tangible link to the campaigns. A physical survivor when little or nothing else remains. Due to the poverty of W Africa almost all the medals were eventually scrapped locally and perhaps ten or twenty of each clasp survive, often by accident in that by the time they reached say The Gold Coast, the soldier in question had been killed, died or left the service. These would often be returned to London and 'disappear'. Or be pocketed locally.
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